I couldn’t help thinking that if the projected Fürth shopping centre Neue Mitte were in Britain, the owner of number 12 could have his building compulsorily purchased. Apparently it’s not possible in Germany.

The Fürther Nachrichten report that the Oberbürgermeister has been repeatedly complaining in public that he can’t expropriate the 77-year-old owner, to the extent that some accuse him of mobbing.

Recently we read about an FDP councillor aged 78 saying he can’t pray for the owner’s soul any longer:

Noch eine Schippe legte FDP-Stadtrat Kurt Georg Strattner nach. «Ich kann für das Seelenheil dieses Menschen nicht mehr beten«, gab der Malermeister, selbst schon 78 Jahre alt, verbittert zu Protokoll.

Now we have Dr Jung:

«Für jeden Gehweg und jeden Spielplatz kannst du enteignen, aber nicht für Arbeitsplätze und Kaufkraft», sagte Jung den Fürther Nachrichten am vergangenen Donnerstag. …

Tags darauf verschärfte der OB den Ton, als er in seinem Grußwort bei der Maikundgebung der Fürther Gewerkschaften als Vergleichsgröße nicht mehr Gehweg und Spielplatz bemühte, sondern ein «Hundeklo», für das man jederzeit enteignen könne. Als diesen Montag nun die Architektenentwürfe für das Einkaufszentrum vorgestellt wurden, wiederholte er dies noch einmal.

He did admit that he was upset about the course of events. At least this proves that the mayor and town council, amazingly, really do believe the Neue Mitte would be a blessing – I had sometimes wondered if they weren’t just saying that for political reasons.

At Language Log, Mark Liberman gives the first page of David Pesetsky’s April 1 assistance to his orchestra:

David Pesetsky, the Ferrari P. Ward Professor of Modern Languages and Linguistics at MIT, is also the principal second violin in the New Philharmonia Orchestra of Massachusetts. For their 4/1/2009 rehearsal, he provided English translations for the sometimes-confusing performance instructions in Mahler’s 1st Symphony.

Langsam Slowly
Schleppend Slowly
Dampfer auf Slowly
Mit Dampfer Slowly
Allmahlich in das Hauptzeitmass ubergehen do not look at the conductor
Im Anfang sehr gemaechlich in intense inner torment
Alle Betonungen sehr zart with more intense inner torment

There is more, especially if you click on the link to ‘read the whole thing’.

The Guardian reports that a German doctor on his first session of providing out-of-hours cover for British GPs administered a lethal dose to a patient (ten times the maximum recommended painkiller dose). He was too tired to concentrate.

Ubani, in a letter of apology to Gray’s family written last July, said the “fatal mistake” derived from a confusion between drugs, one of which was not used by on-call services in Germany, and the “tremendous stress” he had been under, having only had about three hours rest before he started his shift.

One imagines that such incidents are waiting to happen under the present health services. Many German doctors have been reported as seeking work in the UK.

The case has also sparked a row over how Germany responded to a UK request to extradite the doctor. Last month Ubani was given a nine-month suspended prison sentence there for the UK incident and fined €5,000 (£4,450) for causing death by negligence. He is continuing to practise in Witten, Germany, although he has been suspended from working in the UK by the General Medical Council’s interim orders panel.

LATER NOTE: The Süddeutsche Zeitung has an article on the subject too.

Der Fall wirft die Frage nach einer strengeren Überwachung der unabhängigen Krankendienste auf, die abends und am Wochenende Ärzte an Patienten vermitteln. Peter Walsh, Geschäftsführer der Organisation “Action against Medical Accidents” forderte den NHS auf, alle Firmen dieser Art zu überprüfen, mit denen Verträge bestehen. Walshs Gruppe setzt sich für die Opfer von Behandlungsfehlern ein.

Die Qualitätskommission des britischen Gesundheitsamtes erklärte, dass bei ihr schon mehrfach Beschwerden über den Dienst eingegangen seien, die den Deutschen vermittelt hatte. Deshalb werde sie den Fall gründlich untersuchen und notwendige Konsequenzen daraus ziehen, sagte eine Sprecherin dem Guardian.

Recently at a local store, the stereo piped in the Christmas carol “The Little Drummer Boy.” It’s one of my favorite Christmas carols, though some versions are better than others. But what struck me was that the more recent versions modify the traditional words “The ox and ass kept time,” replacing them with “The ox and lamb kept time.” I’m sure the word “ass” was replaced because in post-modern usage, the word refers to a body part— and these days, its use might incur hefty fines from the FCC.

A Google search on “the ox and * kept time” reveals more (including a mule).

Censorship meets Religion?

Louise Frances Denyer, of (or connected with) Birmingham University, has a PDF on the Web of an 85-page paper (about half of it consists of appendices with language examples):
Corpus study carried out on three ‘legal’ verbs to demonstrate their similar and different usage for the purposes of legal translators and lawyer-linguists.

The paper aims to show the valule of corpus studies in translation and legal-language teaching. I’ve only skimmed it so far, but unfortunately the corpora used, which are English, Spanish and French, don’t appear to be specifically legal texts. The three verbs were chosen because the author’s students wanted to know more about them – I remember this problem with another collection of verbs mentioned here: abolish, override, set aside, quash etc.

The following is really only based on skimming the article:

Breach often collocates with peace, security, contract, confidentiality, rules, rights, and fiduciary (MM: should be fiduciary duty, not just ‘breach of fiduciary’ as suggested).

Violate collocates with rules, codes, covenants, terms, prohibitions, and court injunction; also with airspace. It is very common in connection with US constitutional rights, whereas in British English it can relate to minor offences.

Infringe collocates with IP rights, such as patents, copyrights, fundamental rights.

I found this article via the programme of a conference on corpus linguistics in Murcia this week, tweeted by Matthew Bennett, seeing the topic and then Googling the author’s name.

I have got a book on corpora that seems very good, but I am only part-way through it: Working with Specialized Language. A practical guide to using corpora, by Lanne Bowker and Jennifer Pearson, Routledge 2002.

Walt Disney did Pinocchio a great disservice. A new English translation by Geoffrey Brock sounds as if it puts things right.

Interesting podcast interview Tim Parks at the New York Review of Books – scroll down.

Collodi was very much about the unification of Italy, but this aspect has gradually been ironed out of the book for children.

Observer review.

(My copy of Tim Parks’ A Season with Verona is being held captive by a football fan in Erlangen).

Thanks to Trevor.